Cotswold food and drink: farm shops, breweries, distilleries and markets

The Cotswolds make lamb, two Gloucester cheeses, beer from four small breweries, whisky and gin from a distillery at Stourton, wine from a handful of young vineyards, cold-pressed rapeseed oil, stoneground flour, honey and ice cream. You buy them at farm shops such as Daylesford and Diddly Squat (opens in a new tab), at the Stroud farmers' market on a Saturday, at Moreton's Tuesday market, and at the breweries and vineyards themselves, several of which run tours and tastings.

How we chose: everything here is a producer, shop or market with its own website or a listing of ours behind it, checked at the desk in October 2026 and recorded in our sources file. Nobody has paid to be on the page, and nothing is ranked. Days and hours change with the season, so the listing linked from each name carries the detail and the date we last checked it.

What the Cotswolds make

Lamb first, because the wool that built the wool churches came off a sheep that still grazes here. The Cotswold, has the old nickname the Cotswold Lion, and the society says it was rescued from the brink of extinction. The Cotswold Sheep Society (opens in a new tab), first formed in 1891, puts the national flock at about 1,350 breeding ewes and the breed on the Rare Breeds Survival Trust's watchlist as at risk. Adam Henson's Cotswold Farm Park near Guiting Power keeps Cotswold sheep among its rare breeds, and the society's members sell fleece and woollen goods.

The cheeses are Single and Double Gloucester. Single Gloucester holds a Protected Designation of Origin on the GOV.UK register (opens in a new tab). It must be made in Gloucestershire, and the specification asks for milk from Gloucester cattle where the rare breed can supply it. Charles Martell revived it in 1978 at Hunts Court Farm, Dymock, where his family had settled in 1972, and the Smart family's farm at Churcham makes both Single and Double. Both farms lie west of the Severn, so the cheeses are Gloucestershire's rather than the hills' own. Double Gloucester is the richer, coloured orange with annatto. Closer to home, Simon Weaver makes organic cheese at Kirkham Farm between Upper Slaughter and Lower Slaughter, among them a blue-veined brie.

Beer, spirits, wine and the shelf goods

Beer comes from Donnington (opens in a new tab), brewing by a mill pond near Stow-on-the-Wold since 1865 and still in the Arkell family. From Uley (opens in a new tab), on the Cotswold Edge near Dursley, in a brewery of 1833. From Stroud Brewery (opens in a new tab), organic and canal-side at Thrupp. And from North Cotswold Brewery on the Fosse Way between Moreton and Shipston. Hook Norton (opens in a new tab) is Banburyshire's brewery and our sister site has it. The Cotswolds Distillery (opens in a new tab) at Stourton, near Shipston-on-Stour, has made whisky and gin since 2014. Wine is the newest trade: Woodchester Valley near Nailsworth, Poulton Hill near Cirencester and Little Oak at Chipping Campden all grow and sell their own.

Then the shelf goods. Cotswold Gold is a cold-pressed rapeseed oil from a family farm near Broadway, pressed since 2010. Matthews Cotswold Flour mills by the station at Shipton-under-Wychwood, on the Evenlode, in a mill built by 1912; the family began by selling grain from a barn at Fifield in the 1860s. Winstones has made ice cream on Rodborough Common above Stroud since 1925, still to a Victorian recipe, and Jolly Nice at Frampton Mansell makes its own too. Honey from local hives turns up on market stalls and farm shop shelves everywhere, each jar from a named village.

Farm shops

The farm shops split into the famous two, Daylesford and Diddly Squat, and a longer list that is better for a weekly shop. Daylesford Farm, near Kingham, is the organic estate's shop, bakery, cheese room and butchery under one roof, with the Trough restaurant and the Old Spot café beside it. It opens every day from 8am (9am on Sundays), with free parking. Diddly Squat, Jeremy Clarkson's shop at Chadlington on the road to Chipping Norton, is small, card only, open Tuesday to Sunday as a rule and shut for a spell in winter. On busy days the shop may close the queue early, it says, and the shop is the film set rather than the biggest or the best stocked. Go early on a weekday, or go to Daylesford.

For cheese, the Cotswold Cheese Company (opens in a new tab) has shops in Stow-on-the-Wold, on the High Street at Burford and in Moreton-in-Marsh, where it started in 2006, with more than 120 cheeses on its list and the Gloucesters on the counter. All three open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday, and from 10am to 4pm on Sundays. Burford Garden Company (opens in a new tab), on the Shilton Road outside Burford, is a garden centre the Johnson family have run since 1976 that grew into a food hall, a café, a bookshop it calls the Reading Room, homewares, furniture, clothing and art. It opens seven days a week (closed Christmas Day, Boxing Day and Easter Sunday) and is the rainy-day shop of the Oxfordshire Cotswolds.

Farm shops in the south, and the bakers

South of Stroud, Jolly Nice (opens in a new tab) stands on the A419 at Frampton Mansell, with a rare-breed butchery, its own ice cream, a café and a drive-through, open every day except Christmas Day. The Organic Farm Shop at Abbey Home Farm outside Cirencester has been farmed organically since 1990 and has a café and farm walks. Near Winchcombe, Hayles Fruit Farm sells its own apples, cider and pick-your-own fruit, with a café, the Orchard Kitchen, open Tuesday to Sunday from 9am to 5pm. The Cotswold Farm Park's Ox Shed has a restaurant, bar and gift shop alongside the day out, and the Coln Stores at Coln St Aldwyns is a village shop and café worth the detour.

Two bakers run small chains across the hills. Hobbs House Bakery (opens in a new tab) began as Herbert's of Down Ampney in 1920, took the Hobbs House name at Chipping Sodbury in 1985, and has shops there and in Nailsworth and Tetbury. Huffkins (opens in a new tab) has baked since about 1890, when it began in Burford, and now bakes at its own craft bakery in Witney, with tea rooms in Burford, Stow, Moreton, Witney and Cheltenham.

Markets

The best market for food is Stroud Farmers' Market, every Saturday from 9am to 2pm on Cornhill Market Place and the streets around it, run by Made in Stroud (trading as Fresh-n-Local) and nominated for the Farm Retail Association's farmers' market of the year. Its stalls are producers only: cheese, bread from Salt Bakehouse, meat, vegetables, cider and honey. Our event page has the practical detail. Stow's farmers' market is on the Square from 9am to 1pm on the second and last Thursdays of the month, with only the second in December and only the last in January, by the organiser's calendar.

Cirencester's charter market fills the Market Place on Mondays and Fridays, as the town council (opens in a new tab) has it, with a farmers' market on the second and fourth Saturdays and a Friday antiques and collectables market in the Corn Hall. Moreton-in-Marsh's Tuesday market is the big one, along the High Street from 9am to 3pm, run by Cotswold Markets since 1976 in a town first granted a weekly market in the 1220s. It is as much clothes and hardware as food, so come in the morning. Witney's charter market runs on Thursdays and Saturdays in the Market Square, with a farmers' market on the fourth Friday. Chipping Norton's market is Banburyshire's.

Breweries and taprooms

Two of the four breweries open their doors on a rule you can plan around. Uley Brewery (opens in a new tab) opens the Forge, its taproom in the brewery yard, every Friday from 4pm to 8pm, and brews Old Spot and Pigs Ear among its regular beers. It runs occasional evenings with a brewer rather than a regular tour. Stroud Brewery (opens in a new tab)'s taproom at Thrupp is glazed towards the Thames and Severn Canal, with a wood-fired pizza oven and a terrace on the towpath, and runs a monthly brewery tour. Check the day before you go, and walk there by the towpath in the valley of the River Frome from the town.

Donnington (opens in a new tab) runs tours of its old tower brewery every Friday at 10am, noon and 2pm, ending with a tasting; the brewhouse has many steep steps, so the tour is not for anyone with walking difficulties, and children under 13 should ring first (13 and over go with an adult). The other way to drink it is in one of its 20 pubs, which stand in the villages around Stow: the Farmers Arms at Guiting Power, the Queen's Head on Stow's square, the Fox at Broadwell, the Horse and Groom at Bourton-on-the-Hill and the Mount at Stanton among them. North Cotswold Brewery at Stretton-on-Fosse has a shop and bar, open on weekdays from 10am to 5pm and on Saturdays from 11am to 2pm when we checked. For the pubs that pour all of them, see our guide to the best pubs in the Cotswolds.

Distilleries and vineyards

The Cotswolds Distillery (opens in a new tab) at Stourton, on the Warwickshire edge near Shipston, runs a tour and tasting of about 90 minutes two or three times a day, at £30 (2026). Book online in advance; the tours are for over-18s only. It was founded in 2014 by Dan Szor, makes a single malt from local barley and a dry gin, and has a shop and café. The brief answer for a wet afternoon in the north is this.

Woodchester Valley Vineyard (opens in a new tab) has 58 acres under vine, planted by Fiona Shiner from 2007 across three sites around the valley below Nailsworth, with its own winery since 2016, a cellar door on the A46 at Inchbrook, pre-booked tours all year for over-18s, and places to stay among the vines. Poulton Hill Estate (opens in a new tab), a family vineyard at Poulton east of Cirencester, makes the Bulari sparkling wines, a Bacchus and a brandy, with a summer tour and tasting from June to mid-September and tastings from October to May, all booked ahead and for over-18s. Its Bulari Bar summer evenings did not run in 2026. Little Oak Vineyard (opens in a new tab) at Chipping Campden makes a Siegerrebe and a sparkling wine from Seyval Blanc, and was closed to visits when we checked in October 2026 while it tends the vines, so check before you drive.

Bakeries and tea rooms

Every market town has a bakery and a tea room, and the two chains above cover most of the north. Beyond them, Salt Bakehouse bakes in Stroud and sells from a kiosk on Union Street midweek and from the farmers' market on Saturdays. The Old Bakery Tearoom in Stow has made everything on the premises since 2005 and closes on Thursdays and Sundays. The Bantam Tea Rooms face the Market Hall on Chipping Campden's High Street. William's in Nailsworth is a fishmonger, deli and restaurant in one, since 1975. For the hotel teas, with scones on tiered stands, see afternoon tea in the Cotswolds.

Cookery schools

Two estates teach. Daylesford's cookery school (opens in a new tab) runs day courses and masterclasses on the farm, from pizza and Italian cooking to classic French, with chef's table suppers and private days for groups. Thyme (opens in a new tab) at Southrop, between Lechlade and Burford, runs classes in its cookery school, from 90 minutes of French canapés or Spanish tapas to a four-hour sourdough session, several a week in its autumn 2026 calendar, beside the Ox Barn restaurant, the Swan pub and the Meadow Spa.

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A food calendar by season

Spring is lamb and asparagus. The Vale of Evesham, below the escarpment at Broadway, grows the asparagus, which holds a protected geographical indication. The season opens on St George's Day, 23 April, with the festival launch at the Fleece at Bretforton, and runs to midsummer. New-season lamb follows from late spring.

Summer is the soft fruit and the vineyards: pick your own at Hayles, Poulton Hill's summer tours from June to mid-September, and Woodchester Valley's tours, which run all year. Autumn is apples and game. Day's Cottage at Brookthorpe, below Painswick, has orchards, a juice, cider and perry business and a museum orchard of Gloucestershire varieties; it holds an Apple Day on an October Sunday and runs pruning and grafting courses, so ask for the dates. Hayles sells its own cider. The pheasant season opens on 1 October and runs to 1 February, and the pubs put game on the board from then. Winter is the farm shops at full stretch before Christmas, with Daylesford publishing its Christmas hours each year, and the Christmas markets at Stroud and Cogges. For the odder food customs, from cheese rolling at Cooper's Hill to wassailing the orchards, see cheese rolling and wassailing.

Eating out

The same producers feed the pubs. Daylesford's Wild Rabbit at Kingham, the Kingham Plough, the Fox at Lower Oddington and the Ebrington Arms are among the north's dining pubs. Wilder at Nailsworth serves one sitting of eight courses with no menu. Our guide to the best pubs sets out how we chose them, and the food and drink pages list every restaurant, café and pub with a listing, town by town. A day that starts at Stroud's market, takes in Woodchester Valley's cellar door and ends at the Bell at Selsley is the south in one go. The north's is Daylesford, the cheese shop at Stow and a Donnington pub.